Anglo Irish Bank appoints receiver to property company

Anglo Irish Bank has appointed a receiver to recover €23

Anglo Irish Bank has appointed a receiver to recover €23.5 million from a property company that was developing a major shopping centre and residential development in Portlaoise town centre in Co Laois.

The bank appointed Dublin accountant Martin Ferris receiver to Maryborough Construction Holdings yesterday after additional investment could not be found. Mr Ferris will try to sell the development in Portlaoise known as the Maltings.

An interim examiner, Ken Fennell of Dublin firm Kavanagh Fennell, had been appointed to the company on November 21st after the directors expressed confidence that they could reschedule the company's liabilities and that all or a substantial part of its business could be saved as a going concern.

The period of examinership is now over, following the appointment of the receiver.

READ MORE

The High Court agreed on December 6th to continue the appointment of an examiner for another 14 days to enable a new investor to come up with funding of €33.6 million.

The court agreed to put the company into examinership after it was told a signed agreement would be put in place bringing in an unidentified investor who would invest €33.6 million in the company. The investor was to provide a €1 million non-refundable deposit as part of an agreement with the examiner.

An undertaking had been given to lodge €1 million before yesterday, but the investment failed to materialise and Anglo Irish decided to appoint a receiver.

Five other parties had expressed an interest in investing, three of which were viewed as "serious contenders", the court heard earlier this month. Lawyers for the bank and the Revenue had opposed the extension of the examinership.

Maryborough started trading in 2003 and the Maltings was its first development. It comprised a 44,000 sq metre retail and office development with 250 apartments and multi-storey car park.

The firm ran into difficulties on the site from its over-reliance on loan capital for the project and the failure to find an anchor tenant for the shopping centre.

Simon Carswell

Simon Carswell

Simon Carswell is News Editor of The Irish Times